Correct, only if the bolt came off completely. In the begining the load side of the pulley, just like the pictures shown, will start to deform.

Once again, the keyway does bear any load from the pulley. It's function is to locate it, not to support the crank pulley.

 

Marcus, my pulley has been on and off a number of times (at least 4 that I can remember) and was even looked at by MB not long ago. If your pulley really runs like mine, then I would question WHY you would want to swap it out. Like I said in previous posts, my VRP pulley runs IDENTICAL to OEM ones running n the same lot. As enthusists, we may just be more **** about certain things and I definitely am with my pulley since I have already seen what a bad install can do.

I would be happy to offer up my car and pulley for any testing to be done. In fact, I am scheduled to go see Vadim tomorrow (SURPRISE!!), so if we prefer that I take it to a third party for inspection I am down. There are a number of MB shops between here and there. We can have a tech take mine off and inspect it. Who is paying for the time?

 

What's it cost to R&R a pulley ?? I've been pretty vocal about my opinion on the matter and would be willing to split the costs with others IF there is some sort of identifiable and clear reason, purpose and result for pulling yours - however, I'm not sure that it'll prove much in determining the matter at hand. Regardless, if you guys are game so am I. *****, I just want to know what the truth is - if inspecting yours gets us one step closer, then I say go for it.

 

The cost is a couple hundred bucks max for a tech to take it off inspect, take pics of the pulley, etc. He will also be able to tell you if the "wobble" that it has is like an OEM one or not.

Lets be clear about one point. I do not expect my VRP pulley to run MORE reliably than an OEM one, so I won't get into arguments over if OEM ones sould wobble. The fact remains that after all of these years MB has only seen a few damaged pulleys. Also, keep in mind that some of the warranty work has been due to AFTERMARKET pulleys causing engine damage and the remainder are ones that had work done at the service departments.

 

I disagree with that assumption. When my motor was killed by Creative with a RennTech pulley (that's for the RT SLK), the true damage didn't happen until i was about 3 - blocks away from creative. I noticed a jerk at the time that I had never felt before, but that was it. The next morning, i had some hard runs and then noticed the pulley coming off (bolt was already gone). In the case of these cars, I don't know what kind of load they were put under before having the pulleys removed but keep in mind that the SC clutch doesn't even engage at idle.

 

Wayne,

I'm begging you.. Please stop. We have both been on this board for a long time. Although we have never interacted with eachother in a business transaction before, have you ever witnessed me treating someone unfairly in all the time I've been on this forum?

Do you TRULY feel that I mistreated you in some way? Or that I was unfair?

Read what you are posting about me... Did I say this in the context you wrote it and in the way people will interpret it?

I spoke to you on Monday morning for nearly 2hrs on the phone discussing this issue. I told you that I would make sure that you received your refund and since you waited 3 weeks and LET didnt give you your money back I would make sure you got it. I was going to send it to you directly and deal with LET & CPT on my own time...

2hrs went by and then it hit me that I sold LET the pulley for a wholesale price and they sold it to you at a retail price. In order to make this all work on the books and keep everything orderly, I said to give the pulley back to LET and get your refund from them since you purchased it from them. Once I know you've gotten your money back from LET I will send LET their money this way you are protected and I make sure you are made whole.

I said the same thing to Marcus when I was emailing.. I asked Marcus if he was made whole and he said "CPT took care of me.. I got my money back".

I expected the same thing would happen for you from LET.

CPT to this day has not called me or emailed me asking for their money back or bothered me about Marcus' pulley yet they gave him his money back right away and got him squared away.

[Al: I applaud you and your shop for taking care of Marcus. ]

I spoke to Erick on the phone and told him to give you your money back and I told him I gave him my word that I would send him a refund for his purchase this way you were taken care of.. I told Erick I didnt want you to be inconvenienced any further.

I suspect that Erick was worried if he refunded you first that I might not give him his money back. I am not that type of person. I gave him my word and that is what I did. That is why I went so far as to send him the money before I even got back the pulley; ALL FOR YOU. I just wanted you to be past this bad experience and start enjoying your car.

I felt so bad that you waited that long and I even told you on the phone I was shocked that it went 3 weeks before you decided to call me directly.

Once I hung up with Erick, I immediately called you and said it was all taken care of. LET will give you a refund and I would give LET the refund. NOTHING HAPPENED.. Erick was waiting for me to send him his money FIRST BEFORE he sent you your money.

At that point, it was a stale mate. LET would not give you anything until I first gave them their refund. In order to help you and get you your money I was forced to send LET their money FIRST.

So, just because I asked you to have LET physically give your money instead of me sending it to you directly, this is me going back on my word and double-talking?


Why do you keep saying VRP delays? I've said this so many times:

Erick called Vadim. Vadim asked for X, Y, Z. Vadim waited. Nothing came. How is this VRP delays??? We didn't do anything wrong. It's not like you were brushed off, or LET was brushed off...

Who was stonewalling you? Did we make up excuses and push you back time and again? NO. We always responded and I tried to do everything I could to help you.

If you don't believe that then I am sorry.

I am not going to post anything further because to be honest, I just don't know what to say to be any more clear on where we stood through all of this.

I regret that this happened to you guys but I wish you would see that neither Vadim nor I ever intentionally did anything to hurt your situation.

 

OK, I must be a real slow and I am having a hard time getting over the fact that my stock pulley has the exact same notch as Chicago's. What am I missing? How could that then be install? Please note: I am very happy with my VRP install, I just want to understand the installation argument. Is it only coming from the mark in the groove, or is there something else that I have totally missed?

 

The notch in the snout of the pulley is called the KEYWAY. If you look at the first picture I posted in this thread, you will see what a "Virgin, undamaged" Keyway looks like. It is a constant width groove.

A damaged keyway as shown in the other pictures is the dents/notches that make the keyway uneven in shape.

Can you take a pic of your stock pulley where the keyway is and post it. That might be better to get an idea of what you are describing.

 

Victor, I don't doubt your sincerity in the handling of this unfortunate matter and I think LET has some owning up to do from their side in regards to your post. My only comment on the above quote would be,...a little follow up perhaps when nothing was heard?

Hell, I still trust ya enough to make the drive back to Costa Mesa...I just have to dig up some more fun money!

 

I took a picture of it and will email it to you (since I don't have a picture site or anything) when I get back home on Thursday (I'm in Albuquerque).

 

From the INSTALL correct?

 

You asked me exactly how much I paid. It was the same price that LET paid, according to the invoice. And this dragged on from Thursday to Monday; should I post the e-mails?

I was waiting for tech support initially, not a refund. I WANTED the VRP pulley to work on my car. No tech support made me wary - then I found out why...you guys were mad at LET, and I was caught in the middle. Why don't you ask Vadim how long it took to reply to the torque spec request?

You said that you hadn't been made aware of any issues with any pulleys prior to our telephone conversation.

Let me reiterate that it was my choice to seek a refund from VRP, not LET's choice. Since they were no longer a vendor of VRP's products, I didn't feel it fair that they should be stuck with the defective pulley.

Please note again that I'm not seeking any additional funds from VRP, even though I spent at least another thousand or two trying to find the source of zero power. I'm not looking for the labor to R&R the pulley, nor the monies for the two belts that were destroyed.

The deal is done, as far as I'm concerned. You blame Al, everyone else thinks it's a pulley issue. I guess that's where this will fester.

 

Of the 5 that went to LET customers, 2 were installed by CPT and have "issues". Where are the other 18 ??? Do they have the same "issues" ???


Without knowing the above 2 points, this issue will "fester" forever. Too bad really....but I guess if we see other VPR pulleys with issues we will know the truth. Until then, I'm glad I have a 63 motor

 

Dude, I almost like you!! Your point is made, except you don't know all the details. I yap alot, but i also know what not to bring up. My feelings towards RennTech are extremely mutual. Neither of us has any clue why the other is acting like such a fool.

I get it. i get it. Although circumstances were very different, I still get it. Many of the elders here took me under the arm and explained that modding adds risks and that it was install. At the time, i had never seen a blown E55 motor.

 

I think it is pretty clear where the fingers are pointed. ABSOLUTELY nothing objective from the conspiracy camp other than CPT is impervious to error and VRP sucks. No FACTS. No desire to follow up with FACTS. NOTHING. Just hoping the same song and dance becomes a catchy tune. Friggin shameful. It really is. Everybody is a tuner these days....

 

Let it fester. A bad install shows itself pretty quick....So, will you still be glad when we find out that VRP is legit? The real question is did you read the post? He answered all of your questions already.

 

Why is it fair that VRP issue a refund to you if LET sold you the product? Why does it matter to you that LET would be stuck with a pulley they purchase? You should have gone back to LET and said you want your money back due to a defective pulley. If LET didn't give you your money back then you should have beef with them, and not VRP. And if CPT has done SOOOO many installs wouldn't they already know what the torque specs are and not have to wait for Vadim to answer the questions?

The majority of forum members are siding with VRP. Not sure if EVERYONE thinks its a pulley issue.

 

VRP removed LET from its vendor list, so all warranty claims now go to VRP directly. If we can't sell VRP products, we are not going to warranty them either.

 

Gentlemen, I repeat, this is going nowhere. Without the bolt, I seriously doubt there is any way a third party could conclusively say that it's an install or pulley problem. From a statistical standpoint, it's nearly impossible the product suffers from an inherent design flaw. All or nearly all of the installed pulleys would have failed and been damaged, and/or damaged the motors they were installed on right?
So, that leaves us again with the possibility that this particular pulley is flawed, OR, the installation is at fault. Of these 2 remaining possibilities, what is the most likely problem? No finger pointing at anyone, just stating the obvious. I vote to close the thread, this is utterly pointless.

 

+10000

 

This is not a warranty claim. This was a question of a refund. There is no if, you got caught with your hands in the monkey nuts (ala Euroelites) so VRP killed alliances, which includes technical support.
Lets not focus on the $50 that was not refunded to YOU (eventhough the water pulley was kept) or the lapse in communication (since we know it was during a sabotage attempt).

What is your relationship with CPT? I see why you were black balled from VRP products but this thread is about bad install vs defective product, neither of which you should be involved with. Why would CPT so quickly refund Marcus' money and not Wayne's? Why did you refund Wayne's and not CPT?

Most importantly, why did you not refund Wayne's money when this first happened? Yes, before you got caught holding the nuts......

 

We would have gladly refunded the money, but VRP has issues with me / LET and has banned us from selling their products.

So, I'm not going to refund any money and then have to fight VRP to get it back.

LET had 2 issues with our water pump pulley that was included with over 40 sets of crank pulleys we sold. We didn't think twice and have issued a recall for those WP pulleys and made replacements that will be going out ASAP.

2 issues with over 40 pulley sets sold isn't bad. We could have sat around and questioned why they failed, but we didn't. We spent thousands of dollars and had new WP pulleys made.

Please don't question our customer service, as that is one example of us bending over backwards for customers.

I like the VRP pulley, which is why we carried it. I would love to know what happened.

LET will be sending the other failed VRP pulley off for a metallurgical test later this week.....at our cost. This is what we did for our own pulleys to ensure our vendor provided us with the correct materials.

 

Pointless? I disagree. First of all, the topics deserve an open forum. It was started by the member to spread the word, so the word should go on, regardless of direction.

Is it ugly? Yes. But, things have been getting ugly behind the scenes for a few years now. I can talk about it because i am not connected. But, all of these changes have brought together a new mix of established members. It is just these various alliances settling in and threads like this are perfect to show true character.

Pointless? Look at the progress. Just recently, the last of the involved parties posted, so they are all here and beginning to tell more and more of the truth.

 

VRP wanted me to refund money and then deal with them. With LET / VRP not being on the same page anymore, I'm not going to refund my PERSONAL money and then fight Victor for it back, considering he was upset with me.

Wayne did not want a refund right away, he wanted another pulley. I told him that VRP and LET are not partners any longer and he needed to contact them regarding his warranty issue.

I sold the VRP pulley to Wayne personally, he can attest to that. I told him that I wanted to get rid of it and I would sell it to him at my cost. He knew it came from me, not LET.

CPT sold the VRP pulley to Marcus, which they bought from me, because Wayne mentioned to them that I had 2.

I know Al at CPT because of this forum and from other MB owners.

Al has wrenched on my cars and my friends cars for a few years now.

You are right, LET should not be involved in this thread, and I have tried to stay out but our names keep being brought up.

What are you talking about "holding the nuts"?

 

Again, fail to answer any of the objective questions, but just throw that blanket. Good luck with it.